Rory McIlroy takes significant steps towards catharsis at the Malaysian Open
in Kuala Lumpur this week.

Before that his collapse on the final day of the Masters will be addressed with his manager, Chubby Chandler, who acknowledged that his stellar client has answers to find.

McIlroy’s painful demise on the back nine, precipitated by a hook on the 10th tee that resulted in a triple-bogey seven to turn a one-shot lead into a two-shot deficit, revealed a flaw under pressure.

“Clearly there is something wrong,” Chandler said. “I don’t know what that is, but it is something we will be talking about.”

McIlroy’s International Sports Management stablemate, Lee Westwood, put his finger on the difficulty. “It’s tough to turn it around when you’ve had a four-shot lead overnight and are now two behind and hitting a few ropy shots,” Westwood said.

“I have played with Rory a lot. When he gets under a bit of pressure he does have a pull-hook in his bag.”

Chandler believes the underlying issue is inexperience. “He is only 21, just a kid, really. If he were in America he would still be in college. We have to remember that. Look at Charl [Schwartzel, the Masters champion], he is 26 and has been on tour eight years. He has played an awful lot, won a lot more and learned from those victories how to handle these situations.

“I don’t think Rory plays enough. He has not learned how to handle situations like this, but he will. He is an amazing talent and a great lad. He will come back from this. We will sit down in Malaysia and talk it through, discuss his schedule and see what happens next.”

Working with a sports psychologist has not been discounted although, according to his team, it is unlikely that McIlroy will go down that route.

He spent some time with golf guru Bob Rotella, a sports psychologist who works with Padraig Harrington, last year, but he has not pursued that approach.

McIlroy works most closely with former pro Stuart Cage, now an ISM consultant, who advises on golfing matters and strategy.

Cage said: “I have been down that route myself but found the psychologists were telling me stuff I already knew. It is more a matter of working through the issues and finding a way to combat pressure in situations like Rory found himself on Sunday. You can’t buy experience. Learning to win on the last day of a major is the hardest thing in golf.”

McIlroy took his defeat admirably, revealing in his response to it the sort of character that ought to hasten his recovery.

He sent an immediate note to his followers on the social networking site Twitter, and a message of congratulation to the champion who broke his heart. “Great player and even better guy. Very happy for him and his family,” McIlroy said in his bulletin.

He was no less open in the immediate aftermath, stopping to talk to reporters about his unravelling. If there is another theatre in which human frailty is so ruthlessly examined before an audience of millions it is not readily apparent. Only sport? Not on days like this.

“It is a very disappointing day, obviously, but hopefully I’ll learn from it and come back a little stronger,” McIlroy said.

“It was my first experience of being in the lead going into the last day of a major and I felt as if I did OK on the front nine and I was still one shot ahead going into the 10th and then things went all pear shaped after that.”

The failing is clearly not technical. No one hit the ball better on the first three days. McIlroy was the top of the driving averages and second in hitting greens in regulation.

It was notable that the putter, which worked well on the opening day, failed with increasing frequency as the pressure mounted through the tournament. Dealing with the intensity of winning is a part of the job he still has to learn. Two tour wins is not representative of his talent.

“I don’t think I can put it down to anything else [but inexperience]. Hopefully if I can get myself back into this position pretty soon, I will hopefully handle it a little bit better. The support out there for me today was incredible. Getting applauded up on to the greens, I was almost a little embarrassed at some points. But the support I had was fantastic and I really appreciate it.”